Nude Food at Thomas Mitchell P.S. Thomas Mitchell Primary School is in Endeavour Hills, Victoria. We have nearly 800 students with over 50 different cultural backgrounds. We have been part of the ResourceSmart program for 5 years and have been educating our students on Nude Food for over 7 years.

T.M.P.S. Nude Food Each week we talk about Nude Food in our Newsletter. Ways which we can create Nude food, giving examples and encouragement to the students and community. We also have information on our blog and website. Students have also created videos to share with the community.

Nude Food Kit We have created a Nude Food Kit that contains ideas on how to create nude food as well as rubbish to make comparisons. This is available for teachers to share with their class and have discussions.

Nude Food Competition We have been running a Nude Food competition for a few years. Classes have a monitor that asks students whether they have nude food. The data is then collected at the each of each week. Winners are announced in the following week’s newsletter.

Cooking sessions Over the years we have had special cooking sessions for groups of students and winners. This involves harvesting and cooking from our own vegetable patch. During this time, discussions and demonstrations are had on ideas for nude food, healthy eating and the importance of drinking water. Parents helpers assist us and our school nurse also comes and speaks to the class.

Nude Food Review After we have had a special lunch, students write reviews or recounts in class which are then shared in the newsletter and the wider community. 2AB and 2WR Nude Food Celebration   On Monday 21st August 2AB and 2WR had a nude food celebration because 2WR had the most nude food lunch boxes out of the whole school. 2AB is always the first class to bring in the nude food results. 2WR and 2AB had a lot of good, healthy food. We had carrot, celery, dips, plain yoghurt, muesli, cheese and fruits. We all ate muesli and cheese. 2WR brought their drink bottles but 2AB did not bring their drink bottles. Nurse Felicity gave us stickers and an activity sheet about drinking 5 cups of water each day. Mrs Cooke brought some containers and show us. She showed us some ideas about a nude lunch box. In 2AB our nude food lunch boxes have containers and sometimes a container that keeps things warm. In that container people bring things like dumplings, fried rice, noodles, porridge, pasta and meat.

The Importance of our Nude Food Program As a school community we are aware of the importance of providing a healthy environment for all students. We educate students on ways to minimise waste and develop their understanding as to why it is necessary. This will in turn reduce our waste within our school. We are committed to the ResourceSmart Program and have targets on waste reduction. We have done a number of audits on our waste and we have goals to reduce our land fill waste. We are an accredited Council of International School (CIS) school with standards in place to provide healthy education for all students.

Our Big Plans Our plans are for every student to take part in our special Nude Food/healthy lunches. Being a school of 800 this is going to take a while and will have a large cost. A grant would cover costs (see page 8) for food, and immerse all students in our school in our Nude Food Education Program. Students would then educate their parents and the wider community.

Costing With each class, we aim to have a different cultural theme. This then not only educates our students on healthy eating and ways to bring food to school with no waste, but also celebrates our ethnicity and the different cultures in our highly diverse school. Each class would be given a budget to work from and create their own menu. They would then research their recipes. Each cooking session will be catered for at a cost of $1.50 per student. Class sizes range between 20 - 29 A recent example was an Italian theme of homemade pizza Total cost for the school being $1200 for all students to be involved. No cost for staffing as this will be covered by the Sustainability teacher and the classroom teacher. The staffroom would used as a location, so there would be no cost for appliances and facilities. Item cost BBQ sauce $1.50 Pittas ($4.60 per pack of 6) x 5 $23 Tin of pineapple $2.75 x 2 $5.50 Olives $3 Cheese $7.50 x2 $15 Tomato sauce $1.80 Ham 125 g $3 x 3 $9 basil School garden tomatoes $37.80 per class